Court documents show that the lawsuit between former Assistant Dubuque County Attorney Richard Kirkendall, former County Attorney C.J. May III and Dubuque County over Kirkendall’s 2022 ouster recently reached a settlement. Any rewards, penalties or other details of the settlement are not yet publicly available, as settlement documents will be presented to and reviewed by Iowa District Court in mid-October. Kirkendall filed his lawsuit against May and the county in November of 2022, the day after Kirkendall lost an independent campaign against May and now-County Attorney Scott Nelson. The lawsuit claimed both that Kirkendall had been fired by the county as retaliation for publicly sharing details of internal disputes in the county attorney’s office and for him running against May. The county and May denied both of these claims.
